Google Anthos no longer exists as a product name. In 2023, Google renamed Anthos to GKE Enterprise, and in September 2025 it folded GKE Enterprise into GKE itself, so the fleet, policy, and configuration features that once defined Anthos are now part of standard Google Kubernetes Engine. The on-premises side of Anthos, formerly Anthos clusters on VMware and on bare metal, is now Google Distributed Cloud (software only). GKE on AWS and GKE on Azure, the Anthos multi-cloud clusters, are scheduled to shut down on March 17, 2027.
If you still see “Anthos” in a billing report, an API name such as anthos.googleapis.com, or an old architecture diagram, that is why. The technology lives on under several new names, and this post maps each old name to the current one.
Timeline: from Cloud Services Platform to GKE
| Date | What changed |
|---|---|
| 2018 | Google announces Cloud Services Platform for hybrid Kubernetes |
| April 2019 | Cloud Services Platform becomes generally available as Anthos at Google Cloud Next ‘19 |
| 2020 to 2021 | Anthos clusters on AWS and on Azure extend Anthos to other clouds. Google Distributed Cloud launches for edge and air-gapped sites |
| August 2023 | Anthos is renamed GKE Enterprise at Google Cloud Next ‘23, generally available from November 15, 2023 |
| 2023 to 2024 | Anthos clusters on VMware and bare metal become Google Distributed Cloud Virtual, then Google Distributed Cloud (software only) |
| March 17, 2025 | GKE on AWS and GKE on Azure enter maintenance mode |
| April 2025 | Google Cloud Next ‘25 brings Gemini models and NVIDIA Blackwell GPUs to Google Distributed Cloud |
| September 2025 | GKE Enterprise is consolidated into a single GKE offering, with some features sold as standalone SKUs |
| March 17, 2027 | Scheduled shutdown of GKE on AWS and GKE on Azure, after which their APIs are disabled |
What Anthos was
Anthos was Google’s answer to a question many enterprises asked in 2019: how do we run Kubernetes the same way in Google Cloud, in our data center, and in other clouds? It combined GKE clusters with a management layer that ran in Google Cloud. Clusters outside Google Cloud registered with a fleet through a Connect agent, and from there teams applied configuration from Git with Config Sync, enforced policies with Policy Controller, and connected services across clusters with Anthos Service Mesh, Google’s managed distribution of Istio, now called Cloud Service Mesh.
The model was powerful, but it came with two conditions. Every cluster, wherever it ran, depended on Google Cloud for management, identity, and observability. And Anthos was priced per vCPU per month across every registered cluster, which made it a product for large enterprises rather than for teams that simply wanted the same Kubernetes in two places.
GKE Enterprise and the move into GKE
The 2023 rename to GKE Enterprise was more than cosmetic. Google repositioned the Anthos features as the premium edition of GKE, next to GKE Standard. Fleets became the organizing concept: a group of clusters that share configuration, policy, identity, and team boundaries. At launch, GKE Enterprise list prices were about $6 per vCPU per month for clusters on Google Cloud and about $24 per vCPU per month for clusters on-premises, on top of compute.
In September 2025, Google removed the edition split. GKE became one paid offering that includes more of the former Enterprise features, such as fleet management, Config Sync, Policy Controller, and the Connect gateway, while other capabilities are sold as standalone SKUs. For a team running GKE on Google Cloud, the practical effect is simple: there is no separate Anthos or Enterprise license to manage anymore.
Google Distributed Cloud: the on-premises side
Google Distributed Cloud is the umbrella name for everything that runs Google’s Kubernetes outside Google Cloud regions. In 2026 it comes in three forms.
Google Distributed Cloud connected runs on hardware that Google supplies and installs at your site, such as a rack or a small server for a store or a factory. Google operates the hardware and the software lifecycle, and the deployment stays connected to Google Cloud. This edition is what people usually mean by Google Distributed Cloud edge, its earlier name.
Google Distributed Cloud air-gapped is the fully disconnected option on purpose-built hardware from Google, designed for governments and regulated industries that cannot connect to a public cloud at all. At Google Cloud Next ‘25, Google added NVIDIA Blackwell systems and Gemini models to the platform.
Google Distributed Cloud (software only) is the direct successor of Anthos clusters on VMware and Anthos clusters on bare metal. It runs on your own vSphere environment or Linux servers. You create an admin cluster that manages one or more user clusters, and each user cluster has its own control plane nodes in your data center. Your team installs, upgrades, and operates these clusters with tools such as bmctl. Every cluster registers with a fleet in Google Cloud through the Connect agent.
Google bills the software-only edition per vCPU, at a list price of $0.03288 per vCPU per hour, or about $24 per vCPU per month, for both vSphere and bare metal. Google counts every schedulable vCPU in your user clusters, excluding the admin cluster and control plane nodes. On bare metal with hyperthreading enabled, each physical core counts as two vCPUs. Ten servers with 32 hyperthreaded cores each therefore come to 640 vCPUs, or about $15,400 a month in GKE fees before hardware, power, and the team that runs the clusters.
GKE on AWS and Azure: the end of Anthos multi-cloud
The original Anthos promise included running Google-managed Kubernetes in AWS and Azure. Those products, later called GKE on AWS and GKE on Azure, entered maintenance mode on March 17, 2025 and are scheduled to shut down on March 17, 2027. After that date there are no upgrades or fixes, and the APIs are disabled.
Google’s recommended path is GKE attached clusters: you run Amazon EKS or Azure AKS, and register those clusters with a fleet to use Google Cloud features such as Config Sync and Policy Controller. That works, but it changes the deal. Instead of one Google-managed Kubernetes across clouds, you operate a different managed Kubernetes in each cloud, and Google provides an overlay on top.
Anthos vs GKE in 2026
Searches for “Anthos vs GKE” usually come from teams trying to decide whether they need the Anthos layer. In 2026, the comparison no longer applies in its original form, because Anthos is part of GKE. The decision that remains is where your clusters run:
| You run Kubernetes on | Google’s 2026 product | Who operates the control plane |
|---|---|---|
| Google Cloud | GKE | |
| Your vSphere or bare metal servers | Google Distributed Cloud (software only) | Your team |
| Google-supplied hardware at your sites | Google Distributed Cloud connected | |
| Disconnected sites | Google Distributed Cloud air-gapped | Your team or a partner, on site |
| AWS or Azure | EKS or AKS registered as GKE attached clusters | AWS or Microsoft |
Each row is a separate cluster type with its own lifecycle. A fleet ties them together for policy and configuration, but workloads do not move freely between them, and each environment needs its own upgrades and capacity planning.
What this means if you run Anthos today
Teams on Anthos fall into three groups. If all your clusters run on Google Cloud, little changes: you are a GKE customer, and the former Anthos features are part of GKE. If you run GKE on AWS or GKE on Azure, you need a migration before March 17, 2027, either to EKS and AKS as attached clusters or to another platform. If you run Anthos clusters on VMware or bare metal, you are on Google Distributed Cloud (software only), and your team keeps operating admin and user clusters in your data center.
The second and third groups have a good reason to look at the architecture again. The original goal of Anthos, one way to run Kubernetes across clouds and data centers, is still valid. What changed is that Google now delivers it as a set of separate products tied together by a Google Cloud fleet.
Cloudfleet approaches the same goal differently. Instead of a separate cluster per environment, Cloudfleet runs one managed Kubernetes cluster whose nodes can sit on AWS, Google Cloud, Azure, Hetzner, other providers, and your own servers at the same time. Cloudfleet operates the control plane, so there are no admin clusters or on-premises control plane nodes to run, and any Linux server joins the cluster with a single command. Workloads on your servers keep running if the connection to the control plane drops.
For European organizations, sovereignty is often the reason to reconsider. Cloudfleet is headquartered in Berlin, application data stays on the compute you choose, and cluster metadata stays encrypted in the Frankfurt control plane region. On the Enterprise tier, Confidential Control Plane, the control plane encrypts cluster data with keys held in your own HSM or cloud KMS.
Moving from Anthos is mostly a tooling exercise, because Cloudfleet runs CNCF-conformant Kubernetes. Deployments, Helm charts, and manifests work unchanged. Config Sync repositories move to Argo CD or Flux, Policy Controller constraints move to OPA Gatekeeper, which Policy Controller is built on, and Cloud Service Mesh configurations move to upstream Istio. The Anthos alternative page describes how Cloudfleet Kubernetes architects plan this migration with you, and the Cloudfleet vs GKE Enterprise comparison covers the platforms feature by feature.
Frequently asked questions
Is Google Anthos discontinued?
The Anthos brand is. Google renamed Anthos to GKE Enterprise in 2023 and merged GKE Enterprise into GKE in September 2025. The technology continues as GKE fleet features, Google Distributed Cloud (software only) for on-premises clusters, and GKE attached clusters for EKS and AKS. GKE on AWS and GKE on Azure are deprecated and scheduled to shut down on March 17, 2027.
What is Google Distributed Cloud?
Google Distributed Cloud is Google’s family of products for running Google Cloud services outside Google Cloud regions. The connected edition runs on Google-supplied hardware at your sites, the air-gapped edition runs fully disconnected on Google hardware, and the software-only edition runs on your own VMware or bare metal servers.
What is Google Distributed Cloud edge?
Google Distributed Cloud edge is the earlier name of Google Distributed Cloud connected: Google-supplied and Google-operated hardware that runs Kubernetes at your locations and stays connected to Google Cloud.
What is the difference between Anthos and GKE?
GKE is Google’s managed Kubernetes service. Anthos was the layer that extended GKE management to clusters outside Google Cloud and added fleet-wide configuration and policy. Since September 2025, those features are part of GKE, so there is no separate Anthos product to compare against.
Is GKE Enterprise still available?
Not as a separate edition. Since September 2025, GKE is a single paid offering that includes most former GKE Enterprise features, and additional features are sold as standalone SKUs.
What replaces GKE on AWS and GKE on Azure?
Google recommends GKE attached clusters, which register Amazon EKS or Azure AKS clusters with a Google Cloud fleet. Alternatively, you can move to a platform that runs one cluster across clouds, such as Cloudfleet.
